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Wednesday, April 1, 2015

#396 - 1984 United States Baseball Team: Gary Green

What a card: Gary Green brings some respect to this 1984 USA baseball team. Among the cards in the set covered so far, Green is the fourth of the seven to have played in the majors, meaning more players competed in the majors than did not, so far.

My observation on the front: Thanks to the caps, these players look like they're buying cattle feed at the corner livestock store.

More opinion from me: All these guys are starting to look the same.

Something you might know: Green played a sporadic five years in the majors with the Padres, Rangers and Reds. He's in Upper Deck's 1989 debut set as a Padre and in Topps' 1991 set as a Ranger.

Something you might not know: Green was named to the All-College World Series team in 1984, along with one of his Oklahoma State teammates, Pete Incaviglia. The two would be teammates again five years later with the Texas Rangers.

My observation on the back: Green's father pitched in some rough situations in the 1960 World Series. He gave up a two-run home run to Mickey Mantle in Game 2 and an RBI double to Bobby Richardson in a 16-3 Yankees win. In Game 3, he was the third Pirates pitcher in the first inning as the Yankees pounced for six runs. Green held the Yankees scoreless for three innings until giving up another Mantle two-run shot (scoring Whitey Ford, who had singled off Green). The Yankees won 10-0. In Game 6, he started the sixth inning and promptly gave up a triple, single and another single and was removed. The Yankees won 12-0.

-- The Hardball Times-- HighHeatStats.com-- Honolulu Star-Bulletin-- "If These Walls Could Talk, Los Angeles Dodgers" - Houston Mitchell--IMDb.com-- "Is This a Great Game or What?" - Tim Kurkijan-- the Ivy League